OFFICIAL: Canon 1D X announced

ISO 12800 looks great for what it is, and the noise cleans up very nicely. What is present is nice organic looking grain. I'm not seeing *ANY* large color blobs (ie, the weird large blobs that chroma NR wouldn't clean up). High ISO highlights and shadows look GREAT too. New high ISO king, almost certainly.

woos wrote in post #14223685
Push the ISO 250 shot.
Edit: look in the dark area, bottom of image. It looks ~ the same as the 5d3's pushed low ISO files. Maybe some small cross-hatching as well.

I've opened the ISO 250 shot and set fill light at +100 in CS5, set blacks to 0 and even pushed exposure to completely overexpose the image. I personally don't see any banding, give me your settings and I'll do my best to duplicate what you're seeing, right now all I can see is the texture of the wall behind the glass. It's definitely not worse than the 5DIII for sure...

stargazer78 wrote in post #14223658
If the 1DX really is 2 stops better than the 7D, then it would be the best high ISO camera out there (alongside the Nikon D4 and D3s).

That's true, but it also means that it's on par with the 5D3.

Remember, about 1 1/3 stops of that improvement over the 7D is accounted for by the sensor size alone. That is, if the 1DX used exactly the same sensor technology as the 7D does, it would show a 1 1/3 stop improvement over the 7D on that alone (its resolution is the same as the 7D, so that makes it directly comparable on a per-pixel basis). So that leaves about 2/3 of a stop of improvement due to improvements in the sensor.

But that amount of improvement has already been seen in the 5D3.


The bottom line is that in terms of ISO performance, it appears the 1DX may do no better than the 5D3 which, as it happens, fares no better than the D800 once the resolutions are equalized. So in terms of high ISO performance, it appears all these cameras are pretty much equivalent to each other at a given target resolution, with the only variable being the native resolution.

This raises the very real question of what exactly you're getting for that extra $3500 over the 5D3. We know you'll be getting twice the FPS and better weather sealing (which is of questionable use in practice as even the 1DX will not be covered under warranty in the event of water damage). You'll also be getting a stronger battery with the ability to drive the autofocus of lenses faster, and better battery life to go with it. But it's unclear that you'll be gaining much else.

The next generation of 7D should bring with it a sensor with at least as much improvement in the sensor as the 5D3/1DX, which will once again put it about a stop behind those two cameras.

It goes back to what I said in the 5d3 discussions.

I don't want to turn high ISO from unusable to kinda ugly

I want to turn medium ISO from kinda ugly to good looking. I'm not the FBI collecting low-light evidence. I want to make a couple keepers each month that I can show around, or look at 10 years from now.

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be where the process is.

BarneyH wrote in post #14221647
Just seen a video which suggests end of May availability - seems to be a legit canon event.

See towards the end of the video

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=w-EINJ0Tl2A

My interpretation of that is end of May in Brunei... Hopefully sooner in US and other markets. Maybe I'm just being overly optimistic.

Erik S. Klein wrote in post #14227385
My interpretation of that is end of May in Brunei... Hopefully sooner in US and other markets. Maybe I'm just being overly optimistic.

The Sultan of Brunei probably already has his gold-plated one to go alongside his diamond-studded titanium M9. Just give him a ring and ask to borrow it. I'm sure he won't mind.

kcbrown wrote in post #14224699
This raises the very real question of what exactly you're getting for that extra $3500 over the 5D3. We know you'll be getting twice the FPS and better weather sealing (which is of questionable use in practice as even the 1DX will not be covered under warranty in the event of water damage). You'll also be getting a stronger battery with the ability to drive the autofocus of lenses faster, and better battery life to go with it. But it's unclear that you'll be gaining much else.

I'll take the "questionable use" pertaining to weather sealing after traveling with my 1Ds MIII and being in everything from sand storms to deluge without a hint of an issue. Anything less than the sealing provided by the 1 Series would have rendered my camera as useless, warranty be damned.

Better battery life is always welcome, and a considerable asset depending upon where you go and what you shoot if you do not wish to lug spares along.

Faster FPS is not something I am too concerned about but from a technical standpoint it is a remarkable thing with a FF body.

So I conclude what you get with the price delta is quite simply, much more camera and it comes as no surprise, in my experience, after having lived with 1 Series bodies for many years.

It may well depend how you envision using the device? You don't see the value, that's cool. But, I disagree with your line of rationalization as the overall work-horse quality of the 1 Series bodies is what differentiates it from the rest of the line. The things are built.

regards,
chmod

chmod wrote in post #14230404
It may well depend how you envision using the device? You don't see the value, that's cool. But, I disagree with your line of rationalization as the overall work-horse quality of the 1 Series bodies is what differentiates it from the rest of the line. The things are built.

I certainly can't disagree with that. I just find it odd that Canon isn't willing to back its claims about weathersealing, and it makes me wonder just what would happen if they skimped on the weathersealing in the 1D series (not that they have, mind you, just wondering about if they did).

Has nobody ever had a 1D series camera fail due to water damage?


Weather sealing aside, I certainly can't disagree that the 1D series cameras are built like tanks...

You just can't compare the numbers, they don't relate all the nuances between the 1 series and other cameras in terms of options, reliability and image quality. Benchmark tests show somemore differences. Having used many different canon bodies over the years, i would say the keeper ratio is higher in my experience with the 1ds for many reasons. A strong AF signal and faster processing being very handy compared to the other bodies makes a huge difference in adverse shooting conditions. The 1ds acheive focus shile other cameras don't or have a delay! And as said by others ~ other bodies can't take the abuse a 1d body doesn't even blink at.

Canon Rumors has predicted another delay in the 1 Dx, does anybody know of any official word on this from Canon. Who are we to believe?

+1 for weather sealing. Have had the 1d4 in a downpour without any trouble. Got it spattered with blood once and washed it off in the sink. I'm sure the 1Dx will be fine.

cyber wrote in post #14238865
Who are we to believe?

U.P.S. / FedEx, etc ....

So here's something I haven't seen asked or mentioned—probably because it doesn't really matter, but anyway—does the top lcd illuminate red now (not orange like the 5Ds or blue like the IV, but canon red)? I saw a video and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me

Erik S. Klein wrote in post #14227385
My interpretation of that is end of May in Brunei... Hopefully sooner in US and other markets. Maybe I'm just being overly optimistic.

Sounds right to me. Otherwise people won't be dumping their 1D4 and 1DS3 like crazy, almost like an insider trading sell..

More delays! It may be as late as July now.

That may well cook Canons goose. Nikon might do very nicely out of this debacle.